COMPANY NEWS: A 'Golden Carrot'; Utilities Go to the Source For Efficient Refrigerator

By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: October 17, 1992

Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. But a consortium of 25 electric companies has discovered that you can also draw a pretty good crowd by offering a few million dollars as a prize.

In July the utilities said that they wanted someone to manufacture a refrigerator that runs on 25 percent less electricity than the Government standard and uses no chlorofluorocarbons, the refrigerant blamed for eating holes in the ozone layer. The companies said they would pay $27.5 million for the best design, with the money being used to subsidize the sale of the machines.

They received 500 responses.

"We've had propositions from inventors, backyard scientists, and from a wide variety of companies and individuals," said Richard E. Harkness, executive director of the consortium, the Super Efficient Refrigerator Program.

On Thursday, the deadline for bids, a dozen companies said they knew how to do the job. "I'm ecstatic," Dr. Harkness said. Many utilities around the country offer rebates to encourage consumers to buy energy-efficient refrigerators because it is easier than building new power plants. But this is the first time utilities have banded together and tried lump-sum payments to manufacturers, an approach the utilities are calling a "golden carrot."

Some bidders sent slim envelopes, some sent fat ones, and one sent a box a foot high and two feet long. But it probably does not contain a refrigerator, Dr. Harkness said; prototypes are not due until next May and then only from the two companies that the consortium will pick as finalists.

Some of the bids came from domestic appliance manufacturers, and others came from companies whose names do not grace refrigerators. One came from Russia, he said.